1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera that captures an image of a subject by utilizing an image-capturing device such as a CCD.
2. Description of Related Art
In an electronic camera that captures an image of a subject and records the captured image by utilizing a CCD image-capturing element, an image signal output from the CCD image-capturing element undergoes specific types of image processing such as white balance adjustment and the image data having undergone the processing are recorded at a recording medium such as a memory card loaded in the electronic camera. Such an electronic camera in the prior art is usually provided with an image display monitor on which the subject being captured by the CCD image-capturing element is displayed in a photographing mode (recording mode) which constitutes a photographing-enabled state and an image recorded at the recording medium is reproduced and displayed in a reproduction mode enabling display of an image that has already been photographed.
When a subject is photographed, an image constituted of fewer pixels (an image constituted of a smaller number of pixels than the number of pixels at the display monitor) referred to as a thumbnail image which is obtained by implementing subsampling (culling or thinning out) processing on the image data mentioned above (hereafter referred to as the main image) is created concurrently while generating the main image, and the thumbnail image is recorded together with the main image into the recording medium. During a reproduction operation, thumbnail images are first read from the recording medium and are displayed in a group at the display monitor. For instance, the screen of the display monitor is split into 3×3=9 display areas and thumbnail images assigned with image frame numbers 1˜9 are displayed in the nine areas. If there are 10 or more image files in the image folder, the thumbnail images in the tenth frame and subsequent frames are displayed by operating a frame feed operating button at the camera. In response to a reproduction display operation performed to select one of the thumbnail images displayed in an array to display the chosen image at the display monitor the main image corresponding to the selected thumbnail image is called up from the recording medium and is displayed at the display monitor.
The number of pixels provided at CCD image-capturing elements has increased to several millions in recent years and, as a result, the data volume of a main image photographed at the highest image quality setting amounts to as much as 8˜10 MB. Thus, it takes 10 seconds or longer to call up the main image after selecting the image in the group display. For this reason, in an electronic camera in the prior art, once an image is selected, its thumbnail image, with the smaller number of pixels is first displayed in an enlargement at the display monitor, and then the display monitor is switched to main image display when the main image access is completed.
However, since the thumbnail image constituted of a smaller number of pixels than the number of pixels at the display monitor is displayed in an enlargement during the enlarged thumbnail display, the image displayed at the display monitor at this time is coarse. While the user is allowed to engage in another operation such as an operation to call up another image even during the enlarged thumbnail image display, the user tends to delay the operation until a fine, natural-looking image, i.e., the main image is displayed since the thumbnail image on the monitor display is coarse and looks unnatural. Thus, a problem arises in that the operability is compromised due to a considerable length of time elapsing during image display.